Get Ready

Interesting news from the Times in London (via The Mahablog):

THE Iraqi Government will announce a sweeping peace plan as early as Sunday in a last-ditch effort to end the Sunni insurgency that has taken the country to the brink of civil war.

The 28-point package for national reconciliation will offer Iraqi resistance groups inclusion in the political process and an amnesty for their prisoners if they renounce violence and lay down their arms, The Times can reveal.

The Government will promise a finite, UN-approved timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; a halt to US operations against insurgent strongholds; an end to human rights violations, including those by coalition troops; and compensation for victims of attacks by terrorists or Iraqi and coalition forces.

It will pledge to take action against Shia militias and death squads. It will also offer to review the process of “de-Baathification” and financial compensation for the thousands of Sunnis who were purged from senior jobs in the Armed Forces and Civil Service after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The deal, which has been seen by The Times, aims to divide Iraqi insurgents from foreign fighters linked to al-Qaeda. It builds on months of secret talks involving Jalal al-Talabani, the Iraqi President, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Ambassador, and seven Sunni insurgent groups.

As the administration's foot soldiers in Congress revile relatively tame Democratic attempts at finite timetables as 'cut and run', it seems their ambassador in Iraq has been hard at work negotiating a deal with the Iraqis for just that. Surprise, surprise.

A UN-approved timetable for withdrawal...gee, that sounds vaguely familiar, like maybe from a couple years ago? The summer of 2004?. Interesting idea. But wouldn't that mean our national security is up to the approval of foreigners? I'm sure I heard someone say that once.

Yesterday, Congress soundly rejected a plan far less ambitious than this one. But of course, that was a plan from a Democrat. You'll want to stretch your neck muscles, so that you don't pull something when we have to watch them suddenly flip completely when the President's more radical plan is revealed. Timetables, withdrawal, foreign approval, it's all OK when proposed by a Republican.